HOW TO PASS PROFESSIONAL EXAMS

Passing professional exams can prove to be a daunting task to many people. It is common to see people that did well in their academic programmes – even first class graduates – struggling with professional exams.

The following tips can be helpful in acing professional exams, especially management exams like ICAN, ACCA, CFA, CITN, CIMA etc:-

1,  You hardly need to cram

Academic exams, especially in Nigerian schools, are majorly restricted to your school notes. Also, in Nigerian educational system, residual knowledge is hardly helpful as many teachers are one-way – either you give the definition they gave you in class or you fail. This has forced many students into crammers. In professional exams, you hardly need to cram. Read to understand the concept and put in your own words. Thankfully, if you scored 50% in many professional exams, you have passed.

2, Syllabus-based reading

It is very important to get the syllabus for the professional exam you want to write and use as a guide in reading. Most times, they don’t go outside of the syllabus. Sometimes, you may not even need to complete the syllabus. Most professional examining bodies don’t set questions from same topic in two consecutive diets, so if you don’t have time to complete the syllabus, you can specialize by concentrating on areas that have not been set as exams in recent times. But it should be noted that your best bet remains completing the syllabus.

3, Residual knowledge can be helpful

One major bane of many candidates for professional exams is tendency to be thrown off balance once they see a question on a topic they have not come across before. Sometimes, examining bodies set shock questions, questions that are not in the syllabus or in the syllabus but twisted in a such a way that you may not even know they are there. They are only testing your ability to think on your feet. Residual knowledge is the key here. The answer may be in some interactions you have seen on Facebook, or on discussion forums like Nairaland, or in newspapers. These are hardly 1+1=2 questions, and the examiners know this. They just want to test your ability to apply your knowledge. You will not see “Corruption & Managers” as a topic in ACCA syllabus, but you may see a case study that tests that. You may see a question that tests “Sports & Tax practitioners” in a tax professional exam. Your residual knowledge is they key here. Being versatile, rather than being only a narrow-minded, unidirectional book reader, may be helpful here.

4, Never leave a theory question blank

When you come across a question that you have no idea about, write anything you know about that subject, even if it is not the answer. You see, if you leave the question blank, you will score zero in that question, but if you rant for like 5 lines on the topic, even if it’s just perambulation, the worst is that you will still score zero, but you’re likely not to score zero. Just write something, just anything you know about the subject. The 3/10 you score in that from your rambling may be the difference between 47% (fail) and 50% (pass).

5, Past questions are king

Treat as many past questions as possible. If possible, get past questions for as much as 10 years. Test your knowledge by first answering the questions and then go and check the answers. Do that again, again and again. The role of past questions in acing professional exams just cannot be overemphasized.

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